Haitian Time

One of the unique attributes of the developing world is that everyone seems to be running a little late. When I was in South Africa people would say, “I’ll be there now” when they were 10 minutes away, as if the present would begin in 10 minutes. My college friend from Guatemala used to say she was running on LA (Latin American) time, which was 10-15 minutes behind, and Haitian time is a solid half hour behind schedule. This is not really not a big deal, and provides some occasional entertainment, but its so ubiquitous throughout the developing world, I couldn’t help but wonder why developing countries were always running late while people in the US are generally pretty prompt.

            One factor that certainly causes things to run behind schedule is a culture. Promptness is highly valued in American culture. If I casually showed up five or ten minutes to my job in America, I would be disciplined in some fashion, and if I’m continually late, I may be terminated from my position. In America, timeliness is directly correlated with diligence. If someone shows up late, they’re probably not working very hard. Showing up on time is also a sign of respect. Even if my tardiness is back by a good reason, its still seen as rude. The cultural importance on timeliness is not upheld in places like Haiti or South Africa.

            Even though culture is an important piece of this puzzle, I don’t think culture fully explains this phenomenon. South African, Latin American, and Haitian culture all developed separately and are all pretty different. Culture doesn’t just spontaneously happen, it’s caused by something. Each of these culture’s didn’t just consciously decide that showing up 20 minutes late was tolerable, there was some reason, some aspect of their societies that caused this phenomenon. 

            One explanation I’ve heard is that people in these societies are inherently lazy and incompetent. They don’t care enough or are naturally incapable of showing up on time. This viewpoint is very outdated and based in the theories of 19^th century Social Darwinism, most of which have been left in the 19th century. This notion also doesn’t hold water in any of experiences I've had in the developing country’s I’ve traveled to, especially Haiti. Every Haitian I’ve met in a professional context, whether they are a tradesperson, a teacher, an administration, or another professional, they all take their jobs very seriously and work very hard when they are on the job. Every Haitian takes his or her work seriously and produces good work: they just don’t always show up when they say they will.

            When thinking about this I started to think about incentives. What is my incentive to show up on time in the US? Yes, I want to be taken seriously, but I also want to be productive. There are people relying on me to be on time, so if I don’t show up on time I am hurting someone else and making the people who rely on me less productive. Lots of professions in the US are oriented toward team work rather than individual work, so if I am late I either keep the others with whom I am working from getting anything done, or I miss out on what the group does in my absence. Working with others inherently demands people be timely, and since most professions in the US involve teamwork, being late has a high cost. I have a big incentive to be on time because I want the rest of the group to be productive.

            In Haiti, especially in the rural areas, most people work alone. Every farmer tends his or her own crops by his or herself. Any farm help is generally from the children or a spose, Almost no farmers hire any help outside of their family to help with the harvest. Each farmer has a relatively small amount of land to farm, so the crop yield from day to day is going to be the same whether the farmer starts at 6:00 or 8:00 AM. If I will sell the same amount of bushels of grain or corn, why does it matter what time I get up to harvest them so long as I harvest them and sell them by the end of the week? In addition to this, there is very little going on for the Haitians to amuse themselves when they are not working. There are no movies to go to, no buses, trains, or flights to catch, and no 5:00 PM happy hours to make. Leisure time is pretty leisurely, and has no set time or place, but happens when there's no work to do. If I want to hangout with my neighbor, I’ll wait until the sun goes down and walk over to his house and say hello. Rural Haitians have less incentive to be timely because the cost of being late is much lower. This in turn, has contributed to a set of cultural norms that does not value timeliness as much as in the US, where timeliness has a much higher cost.

             Thinking of Haitians as lazy or incompetent is not only inaccurate, but it doesn’t show the inner workings of how Haiti works. Haitians are just as diligent as Americans, they just have different incentives and economic forces molding their culture.